a trio of weekend retreats for listeners of Books on the Nightstand

Main menu

Booktopia 2014

Booktopia is a series of weekend reader/author retreats hosted by Michael Kindness and Ann Kingman of the Books on the Nightstand podcast. Booktopia was envisioned as a way for listeners of Books on the NIghtstand to gather together and share their love of books and reading. It has become something much, much more. Booktopia is a place where real connections happen: reader to author, author to author, and person to person. Now in its fourth year, Booktopia has been the starting point for many lifelong friendships, and our Booktopia authors have found lifelong fans. We’ve brought together readers from across the United States, and from Australia, Canada, Germany and Switzerland.

We’ll be honest: it’s not quite the relaxed, laid-back retreat that we originally envisioned. Not a lot of reading goes on during the weekend. Instead, it’s a busy few days of great conversation, intelligent literary discussion, and much laughter. And because we all have a love of books and reading in common, even the most introverted Booktopian finds it easy to make conversation and meet new people.

Thanks to all who made Booktopia 2013 a raging success. We had a wonderful time with our bookstore partners and authors. Please visit our Author Alumni page to see the amazing lineup of authors that joined us at past Booktopia weekends. Here’s where we were in 2013: April 12-14, 2013: Manchester, Vermont, in partnership with Northshire Bookstore June 7-9, 2013: Bellingham, Washington, in partnership with Village Books September 27-29, 2013: Petoskey, Michigan, in partnership with McLean and Eakin Booksellers

Here’s where we’ll be in 2014:

May 16-18, 2014: Boulder, Colorado in partnership with Boulder Book Store.This event has sold out.

August 22-24, 2014: Asheville, North Carolina in partnership with Malaprop’s Bookstore Registration date has not yet been announced; it will likely be January 2014.

In order to keep the intimate feel that Booktopia is known for, we limit attendance to 85 guests. All of our previous events have sold out, some as quickly as 8 minutes after registration opened. For that reason, we encourage you to register as soon as possible after the opening time. Once full, we will keep a waiting list and draw from it in the event of cancellations. Please sign up for our Booktopia mailing list to be sure that you receive all updates. Booktopia 2014 registration: We will send an email approximately one week before registration opens to remind you. We will also promote registration on our twitter feed and Facebook page. Full details for each Booktopia event can be found on this website by using the tabs at the top of the page. These pages will be updated as information becomes available. There is also a tab marked FAQ — that should answer most of your general questions about Booktopia As always, we are making this up as we go, and we are not professional conference planners, so do not hesitate to contact us (comments@booksonthenightstand.com) with questions. We will also be using this Booktopia email list for periodic updates. Booktopia is about connecting readers with authors, and connecting readers with readers. In order to keep an intimate feel to the weekend, each retreat is limited to 85 guests, on a first-come, first-served basis.

Authors:

We do not yet have a list of participating authors for 2014. Authors will be announced prior to each retreat, but probably after registration has opened. We will do our best to give you enough time to read at least some of the attending authors’ work.

Planned Schedule: The planned retreat format will likely be similar to our 2013 Booktopia events (but we reserve the right to change it around if need be). We’ll kick off on Friday afternoon with small group sessions and a welcome gathering. Individual author sessions (30 guests + one author) fill the day on Saturday. Saturday evening will be our Celebration of Authors at our partner bookstore. We’ll also have a session or two on Sunday morning. It is quite likely that the format may vary slightly city to city, to take advantage of each unique location. We will definitely hold our very popular Yankee Swap.

Cost:The complexity of running retreats in 3 cities means that we will be facing some expenses for meeting room rental, refreshments and other incidentals. We also need to cut down on the number of last-minute cancellations. All funds will go back into the retreats; we are not making a profit from this in any way. The cost for Booktopia 2014 will vary according to city. Please see each individual event page for cost details. This is not a formal, tightly-organized, all-inclusive conference with rubbery buffet chicken. This is an individual, pay-as-you-go on your own hang-out-with-friends kind of weekend. You pay for your own lodging and meals — so that you can stick to your own budget, and hopefully have a lot of money to spend on new BOOKS! Some people will likely want to have dinner in a nice restaurant, others will want to get a sandwich — whatever you choose to do is up to you, and you will surely have company in whatever you do. We really want to keep this fun and affordable for everyone.

Lodging: We have arranged for special rates at our partner inns, but you are in no way required to stay at those inns. If you would like a less expensive (or more deluxe) option, that is completely up to you. Similarly, all meals are on your own during the retreat. We will provide a list of restaurants suitable for all budgets in your retreat welcome packets.

For more information: All information particular to a specific city will be featured on this website as it becomes available: We will post lodging options and all of the details as we have them. In the meantime, feel free to email us at comments@booksonthenightstand.com